A Douglas resident’s quest to find mobility scooter-friendly routes through the capital will continue, and her cousin is hoping others who have encountered problems might contact the newspaper to share their experiences.

Michele Edwin, who lives in Bride, and her cousin Marie Kearney, who lives in Waverley Court in Douglas have been working on finding accessible routes around the town.

Ms Kearney, who has given up driving, uses the scooter to get around, but finds her routes have to be planned with care.

Mrs Edwin has been accompanying her to find viable routes to the post office, shops and other places she wants to visit but the major hurdle, perhaps literally, is a lack of dropped kerbs and, worryingly, where there are dropped kerbs onto the road, there is often no corresponding one giving safe access back on to the pavement at the other side.

Speaking previously to the Manx Independent, she said: ’I realise that Douglas is an old town with many small roads and money is tight, but the net effect of not having dropped kerbs around the town is to restrict the freedom of movement of people who use scooters and wheelchairs.’

In response to Mrs Edwin’s comments, the Department of Infrastructure made a statement saying it assessed pedestrian crossing facilities when it designed and undertook highway improvement schemes and dropped kerbs were installed where appropriate.

’A good example is the scheme currently taking place in Port Erin where dropped kerbs have been installed adjacent to the disabled parking bays for ease of access.

’Additionally, the Department will assess any views or concerns expressed by members of the public and introduce dropped kerbs if practicable,’ a spokesman said.

Mrs Edwin told the Isle of Man Examiner: ’It’s lovely that they are doing things around the island and I don’t want to detract from that.

’But one of the problems is there is no consistency, with, say, dropped kerbs on one side of the road but nothing corresponding on the other. Or there may be a zebra crossing there but then it’s a bump down from the pavement onto it. It just doesn’t seem to be properly thought through.

’There are some areas of Douglas that work well but it’s not until you are using a scooter or a wheel chair that you start to realise the problems that are simply not obvious to anyone who is able bodied.’